hot-footed across the
land, making broad ways that passed over hill and valley without pause
or rest, yet now the empire of Rome is but a name.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV

THE STRANGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

Looking down from the deck of the _Orontes_ it seems as if we were
peering into the folds of a black gauze curtain, between which demons
from the pit rush yelling to and fro. These men are black from head to
foot, with the exception of the gleaming white teeth which show between
their open lips. They are black to begin with by nature, and are further
covered, scanty clothing and all, with a thick coating of coal-dust,
which sticks to their oily skins and dirty rags. They are digging
frantically into the heaped-up coal of a great barge lying alongside,
gathering it into baskets and rushing up planks to deposit it in the
coal bunkers of the steamer, and all the while they shout in a strange
chant at the tops of their voices. When white men are doing severe work
they are silent, as they need all their strength for the task in hand,
but when their dark-skinned brothers work they find it necessary to
shout as loudly as they can, and the harder the work the more noise they
make. At a little distance their confused yelling is like the cheering
of a great crowd at a popular football match.

[Illustration: PORT SAID--STATUE OF DE LESSEPS.]

All the port-holes have been closed to keep out the dust, the ship's
carpets are rolled away, the place looks as if prepared for a spring
cleaning. It is time for us to go, for we have arrived at Port Said, the
principal landing-place for Egypt, and we have to say good-bye to the
_Orontes_ here, though we shall not forget her as the first of the many
ships which carry us on our great adventure.

It is easy enough to get a boat, competition is keen, and the laughing
bright-eyed boys who row us across seem in the best of humour; they make
a brilliant picture, for they are dressed in scarlet and blue for
choice, with bits of orange wherever they can stick them on.

Port Said, where we have landed, is a large town with a big business,
yet it is built on a site which a comparatively short time ago was
nothing but a marshy salt lake. Men of all nations walk in its streets,
and ships of all nations pass through its port. It is a strange
mingling of East and West. Here the two meet, and those who come from
the West for the first time cry with delight, "This is the East!" while